


[Podfic Cover art] Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance

by Annapods, yue_ix



Series: Podfic related art [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Animated GIFs, Fanart, M/M, Pining, Podfic Cover Art, Software Instability, off screen kissing, wallpaper available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-07-27 09:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16216475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods, https://archiveofourown.org/users/yue_ix/pseuds/yue_ix
Summary: Cover art and notes for the podfic "Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance" as performed by Annapods, based on the fic by ImogenGotDrunk.Part of my Podfic Big Bang 2018 artist collaborations.





	[Podfic Cover art] Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [[podfic] Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198316) by [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods), [yue_ix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yue_ix/pseuds/yue_ix). 



Welcome to Yue and Anna's Behind the Scenes. :D

 

  * **Q: How did this collaboration come about?**



**Yue:** when Anna listed this in the artist claim post, she states:

> This fic sticks pretty close to the game (including lots of in-game dialogues), so it should be easy to use images and themes from it for the cover. There are two chapters, one from each POV and on approximately the same events, so if you want a challenge, a set of covers would be particularly fitting (though in no way required!). I'm also always down for other types of collabs.

There was a lot of delicious bait for me in that post, and you can bet I took Anna up on the collaboration offer. Her covers are gorgeous!! This was also my second claim for the Podfic Big Bang, and being encouraged from the start to use pre-existing images was very enticing. Of course, I ended up reworking them so much it took 3 times the time a regular drawing takes but heh. That's on me. XD

That's how I pinged Anna on Twitter the very minute I got my Claim confirmation notification. We rapid-fire agreed on collaborations and multi-cover possibilities in excited French and English. We're pretty like-minded and readily agreed a direction. ^__^

 **Anna:** That last line was originally supposed to be about non-visual collabs, because I looked at the text and went \o/ sfx!! multivoice!! everything!! but also /o\ editing. And then Yue happened. The line about using images from the game was half me trying to entice cover artists with how easy this one would be, and half me wanting to do the cover myself. And then... Yue happened.

I knew as soon as she contacted me that this would be a Collab, capital C. We're two different types of artists: I'm more graphic design, she's more drawing, so combining our strength would give something amazing.

I love how quickly and seamlessly our ideas came together. The linked covers, the color gradient, the game's graphics... We divided the tasks between the two of us, but it truly was a collaboration.

 **Yue:** (hides face) Oops...

 **Anna** : No, it was perfect! I got to collab with you! (And, tbh, I had so much fun with the editing, and I probably wouldn't have been so motivated if you hadn't been there ^^)

  * **Q: what were your initial idea and how did that evolve?**



**Yue:** Our initial idea was pretty much respected, to be honest. We wanted 3 covers from the start: one with Connor for chapter 1(facing one way), one with Hank for chapter 2 (facing the other way), and one with both for the podbook (facing each other). We also agreed on trying to animate it, which neither of us had done successfully yet, with LED compliance light flashing and/or colours changing in the background. Last, we wanted to incorporate elements directly from the games, because Anna had this awesome plan of incorporating sound effects from the game. We've achieved all of this!

 **Anna:** This fic is very close to canon. It follows the timeline from Connor and Hank's first meeting to Perkins, twice, and most of the dialogue is from the game. (I kind of wish _all_ of it was from the game, because then I could have spliced the game dialogues in, but I disgress.) Connor's chapter is full of visual elements ("software instability ^") that had to be adapted to fit a visual-less medium like podfic, and I thought it would be kind of neat to get that visual back through the covers. Using the game's graphic chart was kind of another nod to that. I traced the elements from a screenshot of the game's loading screen, staying as close to it as possible. Hank's cover was switched to black to match the DPD report files. I wish I had had more inspiration for the m4b cover, because now that I think about it, there are so many ways to mix the two more effectively! Yue pitched the gif idea from the get-go and, seriously, how awesome?? She carried it through even though she was learning as she went and the final result is soooo pretty.

  **Yue:** Yeah, because the recording was so close to canon, I also stuck with canon pictures. The style here is a botched-up tracing vector. I used a couple of screencaps from the game, made some rough photoshop manipulation to get the characters how I wanted them. In a close zoom, using the Lasso and Pen tools, I contour each shapes in big colour blocks and layer them up until I got some definition. You know what, [Here's a video tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMtmVErZQKQ) explaining this technique. It gives a very computer graphics style, especially if you use fewer layers and details. Each figure had about 7 layers total, here.

  * **Q: what was the biggest challenge?**



**Yue:** (nervous laugh) Oh goddesses, it was the animation using Photoshop for me, for sure. That took so long! If you are curious, here's a tutorial video of how to do this: [Tutorial on how to make a gif using Photoshop.](https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/11/17952802/how-to-make-gif-photoshop-timeline-animation) It came out a week AFTER I was done, of course, so I learnt it all the slow test way. Don't be like me!

Basically, every frame has to be shifted 2 pixels to the side then duplicated and shifted. Then I'd realise I forgot to move the background as well as the characters (in a different rhythm) and have to go back to every frame to fix it. Connor's LED light in particular kept trying to fly away for some reason! By the time I got to the third cover, with the two of them together getting progressively closer, I was stabbing my keyboard arrow key and hissing "Now kissssss you fools!!" at the screen.

 **Anna:** I spent a lot of time messing with the colors to find something pretty and then fighting Inkscape to unify all the gradients. It was more tedious than anything else, really, but I learned some stuff about colors and the grouping function.

 

  * **Q: which is your favourite part?**



**Yue:** The gorgeous layout Anna made that acts as a frame. This is my gold-foiled frame for a doodly artwork. I just had to slip it over my files and save, like magic. Wow! If you are curious, this is what my flat image kind of looked like before Anna's touch.

**Anna:** The play of colours in the animated covers. I just find it so gorgeous! I'm seriously in awe at Yue's Photoshop skills.

 

  * **Q: any other comment?**



**Yue:** if you'd like to download a bigger version of the base drawing, I made a wallpaper of it here: [1388 x 768](http://yue-ix.parakaproductions.com/podcast/audioart/Detroit_Op_1388x768_wallpaper.jpg).

Also, I hope the podfic community as a whole will continue to test and try new things, since this fanwork medium offers so many possibilities. I'm glad Anna and I tried this weird thing because it turned out to be a great experience!

 **Anna:** I'm just really thankful we got to do this and it was so much fun, now I want every podfic I do to include some sort of collab ; ;


End file.
